Sunday, 26 March 2017

Bus route cuts in Manchester

A
total of 20 services, many vital to commuters getting to work and
patients travelling to hospital, are to be axed, reduced in frequency or
have their routes curtailed

Passengers
and MPs, including Greater Manchester Mayor front runner Andy Burnham,
have slammed bus service cuts across the region.
A total of 20 services, many vital to commuters getting to work and patients travelling to hospital, are to be axed, reduced in frequency or have their routes curtailed .
Run
by Stagecoach, First and Arriva, the changes affect passengers in areas
including Manchester, Rochdale, Salford, Bury, Oldham, Bolton, Wigan,
Wythenshawe and Trafford.
Hundreds of people have
reacted to the news - with many saying that the services provide a link
link to jobs and training around the region.
And politicians are now demanding bus firms justify their decision.
Speaking out, Mr Burnham, Labour’s Mayoral
candidate, said: “It is simply wrong that bus services can be chopped
and changed at the whim of the operator.
“People will lose confidence in using the service if they’re not sure whether a bus will turn up or not.
“Bus
services throughout Greater Manchester are too often run for the profit
of the operators and not for the benefit of the passengers.
“In
recent years we’ve seen fares going up and vital services cut, often at
short notice. It’s no surprise that the number of people using buses
has gone down.
“If I am elected as Mayor on May 4, I
will use new powers to make buses more affordable, more reliable and
work in the public interest.”
Blackley and Broughton MP
Graham Stringer, whose constituency will see reductions to the 118
service from North Manchester General Hospital to the city centre via
Moston, said the move was ‘yet more evidence that these bus companies
are getting public money under false pretences’.
He added: “These companies do not care about public services, only their profits.”
The
two services to be axed are the V3, one of three buses which runs on
the busway from Manchester to Atherton and the 109 from Wythenshawe
Hospital to Manchester.
Heywood and Middleton MP Liz McInnes said: “I am
deeply concerned about the impact that these cuts to bus services may
have on many local people.
“The fact that these
decisions have been made by private bus providers and not by Transport
for Greater Manchester clearly demonstrate the need for properly
accountable bus services in Greater Manchester.
“For too
long people in Heywood and Middleton have been let down by expensive
and unreliable bus services run in the private not the public interest,
and enough is enough.”
More than 600 people have already signed a petition on the change.org website protesting against the reduction of the 378 bus service from Stockport to Wilmslow.
Set
up by Janet Taylor it reads: “This not only prevents residents
travelling to work, school and college but will also leave many elderly
and disabled residents housebound. This service is essential to
residents of Wilmslow, Handforth and Stockport.”
Haadia Mir, from Handforth, is among those who have signed the petition.
She
wrote: “The Handforth and Wilmslow area is severely lacking in good
transport services at the moment and by terminating the 378 route the
residents of those areas will be deprived of this crucial transport
link.”
Passengers have also been criticising the cuts on the M.E.N. Facebook page.
Michelle
Ionn said: “So they spend a fortune on the guided bus way and bus lanes
on the East Lancs only to pull one of the new ‘premium’ services.
Crazy.”
Rob Inman added: “Many evening and morning
services withdrawn. This is madness. They want to cut congestion and get
more people on public transport yet this will make it more inconvenient
to use buses across Greater Manchester.”
All services affected are not subsidised by Transport for Greater Manchester. The changes have already been run past a Greater Manchester’s bus committee and will come into force from April 23. A
Stagecoach spokesman said: “There will be selected service reductions
in some localised areas to reflect changing travel patterns, however
most customers will continue to be served by other services or public
transport options. The vast majority of Stagecoach Manchester passengers
will be unaffected by these changes.
"Stagecoach
Manchester is continuing to invest in services in Manchester with new
buses being introduced in the Middleton area and additional buses on the
250 and X50 routes.”
Phil Medlicott, managing director
of First Manchester, said there would be ‘minor changes’ to services 95,
350, 468, 471, 511 and 524.
He said improvements would
also be made, with, for example, the cross-city service 18 to resume
after the Oxford Road works, stopping at the Manchester Royal Infirmary.

STAGECOACH

Axed:
109 - Wythenshawe Hospital/Manchester - service withdrawnReduced:
118
- NMGH/Moston/Manchester - Mon-Sat evening service reduced from every
20 to every 30 min, Sunday evening service doubling frequency to every
half hour.
600/601 - Leigh/Ashton in
Makerfield/Bryn/Wigan - Two instead of four buses an hour on
Sundays/bank holidays between Wigan and Ashton

A comment received from NMcB puts a rather different perspective on the above information.While strictly speaking it is true to say that Vantage Service has been axed, this statement is to say the least highly misleading! What is happening is that the hourly service V3 between Leigh, Tyldesley and MRI will be replaced by V1 between the same points every 15 minutes and V2 between Atherton Tyldesley and MRI every 15 minutes.The reported comment "So they spend a fortune on the guided busway and bus lanes on the East Lancs only to pull one of the new premium services. Crazy could not be further from the truth.Unfortunately this is what happens when press and politicians get hold of half a story and interpret it in a way which suits their own ends. I believe the term is "Fake News"

Focus Comment We agree and apologise for the fact that this posting was published without further investigation. We are quite aware of the mischievous and damaging activities of politicians and some branches of the media.

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